After spending a year's worth of legal effort and political capital on trying to prop up a congressional map aimed at ousting Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, some of the GOP's top leaders aren't exactly eager to talk about redistricting again.
The two top leaders of the Senate Republican caucus have differing levels of enthusiasm about pursuing redistricting in 2027, especially after voters overwhelmingly decided to reject the map passed in 2025 at the behest of President Donald Trump.
Incoming Senate President Pro Tem Jason Bean, R-Holcomb, said his caucus planned to discuss whether to do redistricting in the near future.
"We're going to meet with our caucus next week, and we'll discuss priorities," Bean said Thursday. "But I think that redistricting is probably on the bottom of the list."
Some Republicans, including Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, have suggested that the GOP dismantle the historically African American 1st Congressional District. They point to a U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Louisiana v. Callais that weakened the ability to create majority minority districts.
But barring a legal opinion that the state must redraw the 1st District, dividing parts of St. Louis and St. Louis County into multiple congressional districts could backfire. Remington Research Group President Titus Bond pointed out that Cleaver would have won reelection under the discarded 2025 map and that three Republicans who won would have had much tougher races for reelection.
"I think we're all tired of talking about maps," Bean said.
Even before last week's election, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway agreed with Bean.
"I think everybody is super sick of talking about the maps," Hanaway said. "I know I am. I've spent way too much of the last year on it."
State Sen. Nick Schroer, R-St. Charles County, who will become Senate majority leader, said the legislature will need an answer about whether the 1st District is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander or a political gerrymander aimed at shoring up the 2nd and 3rd Districts for Republicans.
"We're going to have to listen to the court and see what their interpretation of our map is in light of what the Supreme Court handed down earlier this year," Schroer said.
Schroer has been an advocate for splitting up Kansas City into three districts for years and for putting St. Charles County into one district. It's currently split between the 2nd and 3rd Districts.
"But again, that's an issue that the caucus is going to be discussing, especially when you have a 2022 map that splits up counties like St. Charles County and many other counties," Schroer said. "Arguably, the 2025 map put more counties back together. I just think that the way that it was done and in the environment that it happened in, voters weren't necessarily all for it."
Could it be done?
If Republicans try to redraw the map without a court order, it could suffer the same fate as the 2025 plan.
That's because congressional maps are subject to referendum. And if redistricting opponents get enough signatures to put it on the ballot, they could block the new map from going into effect before the 2028 election cycle.
It's also possible that the passage of Amendment 6 makes it much more difficult to redraw congressional lines. One provision in it says that lawmakers cannot pursue legislation that was rejected by a referendum unless they pass it with 80% of the House and Senate and an affirmative statewide vote. The 2025 map passed far below that threshold.
Incoming Senate Minority Leader Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, said Republicans would be foolish to redraw maps.
"Do they want to listen to the people in Missouri who are screaming at them, 'We don't like what you're doing in Jefferson City'? Or are they going to double down on the failed policies that got rejected by the voters and cost them a bunch of seats? So that's going to be a decision they're going to have to make. But I would certainly hope they would listen to the will of the people."
House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, also said Republicans would be making a huge mistake doing redistricting again after Tuesday's elections.
"They do that at their electoral peril, for sure," she said.
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